Phenomenon
by LizzieWillow
Summary: Lizzie is just a regular girl. As regular as you can get, being in Erudite. But that changes. Things change. The amazing can become dull, the new can become old, the good can become evil, and the normal can become a phenomenon. If you want to read the story from another perspective, please look at EmeraldHeart 12's story, called Wrapped Into Information! A little cussing.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1**_

I wake up to the sound of my little sister Naomi squealing on the bed across mine, and

a pillow whizzes near my head. "APTITUDE TEST!" I groan and pull out the duvets,

then fall off my bed. I nearly trip because of the pillow fort Naomi forced me to help her build yesterday after I finished my homework, and I fell splat on the floor. I laugh dryly, and change into jeans and a blue T-shirt. Shoving my laptop and book into my duffel bag on pure instinct. When do I not read? Never, of course! I run to the dinner table and tap the glass tap two times. My parents and sister come out and we all laugh. It was a tradition for the first one to get ready for the day to tap the table, and for past week it was either me or my sister. We all quickly finish our scrambled eggs, and I burst out of the door.

Normally, I'd take the bus to school. Today, I just felt too much adrenaline and ran

school through a quick passageway, around the crowds of factionless. They packed together like clumps, making it easy to manoeuvre through. _Wait, am I acting too much like the Dauntless again?_ I shrug internally, and make it to school around fifteen minutes until the bell rang. Well, according to my watch. I pick up a newspaper and shove it into my duffel bag. I already know what the headlines will accuse. Marcus Eaton, more known as an 'irresponsible father'.

As I run into class, chaos erupts. The Erudite have just been maltreating the Abnegation due to Jeanine's studies, and school had been a ruckus ever since. I'd use force to stop it if I had to, but it would make me seem like a traitor. Emma, my neighbour, soon walks in and sees a fight between an Erudite named Jeffery and an Abnegation, who I believe is called Beatrice. Yes, that's it. I tune them out, and find a seat. I open my book, and sigh. Sooner or later, the Erudite will realize they were wrong to believe Jeanine at all. Suddenly, the speaker blares: "From Dauntless: Uriah Pedrad and James Tucker. From Erudite: Jennifer Amilee and Emma Smith. From Amity: Jill Lerner and Gerald Davison. From Candor: Peter Hayes and Molly Atwood. From Abnegation: Susan Black and Beatrice Prior." A batch of people walk in, and I ignore the world once again. Immersed in my book, I don't realise how fast time has sped up, and soon I am in a room with a reclining chair. _Just breathe._ Breathing deeply, I quiver in front of the man in the room.

"My name is James, and I will be administering your aptitude test today." He has pitch

black hair and brown eyes, and seems to be from Dauntless. I nod and take in a deep breath. I sit down in the reclining chair and he hands me a small vial. "Drinking it will start the test." He quickly presses an electrode to my head lightly, and the other side to his. "This will just let me see what's happening." I nod quickly, then gulp the liquid inside the tiny vial. It tastes faintly like lemons, and the world feels like it has frozen.

Suddenly, James disappears, as well as the vial that was in my hand. Although I am in the same room, the only things in there were a table containing a slice of cheese and a knife.

 _Choose._

"Why should I?"

 _Just choose._

"There's nothing to choose for, it's not logical!"

I suddenly realise the voice is Jeanine Matthews, the one who started the havoc between Abnegation and Erudite. Why would she need me to choose though, if she's perfectly capable of doing so herself? Why do I need to choose?

 _Have it your way then!_

The cheese and the knife disappear, and I hear a growl from behind me. Whirling around, it is a dog. One that is snapping and running for me. I pause and thought about what I'd learnt in class to figure it out. Yes, we secrete a chemical which is the same as a dog's prey. I sit down, and the dog to advance more slowly, and I take deep breaths just in case. The dog starts to walk over curiously, then licking my hand. I put my hand on it's muzzle, and rub. "You're just a good dog." I laugh, but to be interrupted by a little girl yelling, "PUPPY!" I turn around at look at both. The girl is just running to the dog, arms outstretched, and the dog seems to be aggravated, and charging to the girl. In pure instinct, I run in front of the dog, and I feel a increasing pain near my digestives. Then the room goes black.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

My eyes flash open, and the sight of the aptitude test room is back again, with James pounding at the computer. He walks up to me, holding the electrodes.

"What did I get?" It may just be Erudite, but I can never be too sure.

James furiously taps into the computer, probably entering my score into the system.

"You got Erudite."

A little voice inside my head screams, _YES!_

"And Dauntless."

My heart drops and the world is in slow motion. My eyes widen as the rest of my body is completely immobilized.

"But.. that's not possible.." I squeak quietly.

"Listen, kiddo. It's possible. It's called Divergence, and whatever you do, do NOT tell ANYONE about this."  
"I thought we weren't supposed to tell anyways."

"That was just to make things a surprise. You cannot tell anyone. Your literal life depends on it.."

He taps again at the computer, and sighs.

"On the system, it'll say Erudite. I have already overwritten the simulation. Okay?"

"Okay.'

"You should go early, back home. Say you had reaction to the serum."

"Okay."

I shivered, and slowly got up from the chair. I wonder how getting divergence would affect me in any way. What did Emma get? I didn't see her get out of the room like people should have. Was she divergent too? I had my suspicions anyways, but I let them go aside. I was thinking too much. I pulled my book out, and read as I walked. I was good at it, since I did it all the time, and I memorised my way home as well. Of course he wasn't her brother, and of course he turned into a vampire. Oooh, gay people with a warlock and a half angel? Nice work, author!

As I neared my house, I instinctively pulled my keys from my duffel bag and open the

door, all while still holding my book. I took off my shoes with my feet and walked to my room, and plopped my duffel bag down. I was still wondering what had happened there in the aptitude test room, and pulled out my computer. The internet should have a clue.

I entered the words, 'define divergence', into the search bar, and the first thing that

popped up was:

 **Divergence**

 _The process or state of diverging._

 _the scalar product of the operator del and a given vector, which gives a measure of the quantity of flux emanating from any point of the vector field or the rate of loss of mass, heat, etc., from it._

Hm.. that didn't seem to work, and so I tried again, with the words: 'define divergent' into the search bar to see what I could find.

 **Divergent**

 _tending to be different or develop in different directions._

Eureka.

Scrolling down the page, I saw a few articles addressing the topic of divergence, but not much. One, said to be that divergence was a menace, and I gulped. I shut my laptop, and left a note for my family.

 _Back soon, going to visit the neighbors. Remember? Come over when you have time._

I smiled and stuck it on the fridge, and left the house.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

Ringing the doorbell on the Smith's, I was immediately greeted by Emma, and in an instant, both of us said the same word. Hi! We both envelop in a hug and Will, a classmate behind Emma, rolls his eyes at me and Emma. I laugh internally and stick my tongue out at him, and the three of us go up to Emma's room, after saying hello to everyone and to Cara in particular. It helps to be polite.

Up in Emma's room, I flop onto the bed, as WIll takes the one of the chairs, and Emma

sits on another chair in the room, and Will decided to start the conversation.

"Spill."

At first, I thought he was reading my mind, then realized he was talking to Emma.

"Spill what?" She replied quickly, as if countering an attack.

"I may not be Abnegation or Candor, but I _know_ when something's bothering someone." Will crosses his arms for effect.

"I'm not the only one who's troubled by stuff. Let me guess what's bothering _you._

Aptitude test?" Emma smirked.

"Can't say!" He teases us. Way too much.

"Hm… Abnegation?" Emma questions and cocks her head.

"No."

"Amity?" I guess. Surely not?

"Nope." Phew.

"Dauntless?" Emma tries the last faction that isn't our own, and it seems like his world had paused. Definitely Dauntless, then.

"No….." His guarded expression gives the whole thing away.

About to exclaim it, Emma beats me to the chase.

"It is! It is Dauntless!" She laughs and I hold in my breath, debating on telling my friends about the strange aptitude I got.. No.. I shouldn't. "Whoops. Sorry." Emma sighs and puts her hand behind her head.

"Was it your aptitude test bothering _you_?" I ask quickly. Maybe she'll be the same as me?

"No. It's not that." She answers, and the little voice in my head speaks up again, telling

me she's lying. But hey, I'm not Candor. I have no proof or any serum. But at the same time, I felt like she wasn't. Was she?

Snapping out of my trance, I ask, "Then what is?" I'm intrigued, and if it's a lie, I want to see how long she can last for.

"This is." Emma pulls out her laptop and shows us some files.

Attack simulation - Serum D2

Divergent

Abnegation

Information reveal

Dauntless army

Jeanine Matthews

Woah.. Wait.. Divergent? My heart stops for a split second and I shake the wavering feeling off. It could be nothing.

"So… Jeanine's planning a war on Abnegation, and is going to control the Dauntless to kill them all?" Will looks horrified. "Someone needs to warn them!"

Will raises his hand. "You know, if it's Dauntless army, I could go. I'll choose Dauntless, I'm the only one with the aptitude. I was afraid to tell them that I had it as well, but decided to keep silent. "I volunteer as tribute!" Will yelled. We all laughed, as it was a quote from an old book we had read in class. Afterwards, Emma and I decided to stay in Erudite, to get some insider info. We reckoned we had little time, as the folder containing all of the other folders was called 'initiation' after all.

During the night, I hoped that I would make the right choice by picking Erudite

tomorrow. I took a few deep breaths and turned on my side, imagining myself slitting my palms into the water of Erudite. _Plip plop._ I turned my attention back to sleeping, and when I woke up then next day, I had clarified my decision.

 _Erudite._

The next thing I knew, was sitting in the crowd of Erudite. Before the ceremony, Emma had given me some communication devices, and I had given one to my father a few nights before. I shoved one in my pocket, and I heard my name being called.

" _Elizabeth Willow."_

I sucked in a breath; no one ever called me that. I was Lizzie, and to be known otherwise was to be destroyed by me.

My heart thudding, I tried to look tranquil while walking up to the podium, and Marcus hands me a knife. I look to Emma, and smile, while she gives me a thumbs up. I walk to the pristine bowls and see my future depicted, and I bit back a cry. I closed my eyes quickly and I hear the drops of blood collide with the water.

 _Plip._

 _Plop._

I let out a breath and smile, hand Marcus the knife as he announces,

 _Erudite._

I wave to my parents and sit back to the front. Where initiation will start.

"Emma Smith."

I let out my laugh as she looks the opposite of placid. Anxious, even. She tries to contain a smile, and looks at me. I wink and gesture towards Will, and smile encouragingly. Emma looks back to the bowls and drips her blood in the water.

 _Plip._

 _Plop._

Easy. She must have had her life figured out. Me? Not at all.

 _Erudite._

She walks over to the front row and hi-fives me, and sits next to me.

"Are you okay?" I ask with a grin.

"Yep. I hope I made the right choice." Emma sighs.

"You have. I just don't know if I have." I sigh and think about my aptitude.

"Anything you need to tell me?" She asks like a concerned friend that she is. Huh.

caring like the Abnegation. I debate on telling her now, but then I take a sharp inhale.

"Later."

 _Later, later indeed._

How would I tell her? Oh, I'm just an abnormal person, nothing to be so shocked about. Of course not! As I pondered my thoughts, Will was called up for the choosing ceremony. Passing us, Emma pressed a tiny object into his palm, and one into mine.

"Communication device." She hissed.

I come back to earth, noticing all the things around me, and then ask Emma a question, maybe to ease the shock of one of her best friends being totally abnormal.

 _Have you ever felt.. Different?_

"Emma, have you ever felt... abnormal? Like a phenomenon has hit you and utterly wrecked your life?"

Emma wasn't responsive. She sat there, her expression blank, like she had seen something out of the ordinary.

"Hey... Emma?"

No response.

"Emma?"

Nothing. Nada.

 _Sizzle._

Will's blood drops onto the black, ashen coals, and I take in a breath. Gone. Forever. It must be hard to process for Emma. She took things a little emotionally, internally, hiding her thoughts. Until it built up and her pain engulfed her and enveloped her like a wave crashing to the beach, in one single instant.

I decided to ask another question.

"What are we going to do for initiation?"

Again, no response. If she's gonna daydream, I'll have to snap it out of her with force.

I hit her shoulder, not too hard, or I might have knocked her out, and that would make this situation even worse. Emma finally snapped into consciousness and looked a little shocked.

"I asked you what we're going to do for initiation!" I whisper way too harshly.

Shock. Yes, that's it. That's why she isn't answering.

"I-I'll tell you later." Emma whispers.

Huh, we like delaying things to until we want or need to do it, apparently.

Emma was breathing heavily, and I sighed. Waiting for the departure of our initiation should have been easy, shouldn't it? We're only in Erudite, we don't need to do press ups for our initiation or anything physical.

 _But then why was I so stressed?_

Twelve Dauntless transfers this year, eight Abnegation - none of which are from Erudite, and two Candors for Abnegation. Suprising? Not really. I guess Erudite and Abnegation are enemies in Jeanine's eyes, even though Abnegation still don't see that. It must be like a crime for an Erudite to become Abnegation. A traitor.

 _Traitor._

 _Traitor._

 _Traitor._

The word echoes through my brain, and a distant memory hits me in the chest. One I've been trying to forget my whole life. I shake it away, but I can't get the sense that he isn't still watching me. Like a hawk. Down to capture the filthy rat for breakfast.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A monster.

A monster.

And it keeps getting stronger.

We had learnt that song in music once, to define what we thought a traitor was. I felt like it was being used to overly just describe me, like some stoic plank of wood who couldn't care less about humanity. That shouldn't be right, but it feels like it is. I turn back to reality, through the bridge that connects my sanity to the real world.

Even though I was still thinking, I still picked up a few things. Our initiation instructor was Antira, a former Dauntless transfer to Erudite.

"Your initiation will be split into three stages: the first being intellectual, with tests. The

second is research, in which you will pick a research topic and work in groups, and the third is practical, with serums."

I sighed half-heartedly.

"You will choose groups of four people to work with. Each must consist of at least one person from each gender, and must have two transfers and two Erudite borns."

That would make things easier.

"You will choose your groups as soon as you get to your dorms."

Antira lead us to the initiation dorms, one of the places that I've seen vaguely. They were pristine and blue, with little areas for work, sleep, and other needs, like toiletries.

"Huh, so it's like this, hmm?"

I jerk back to see a boy standing behind me, obviously admiring the architecture and books stacked in the corner. So much knowledge, it might have been hard to process for a transfer, especially an Abnegation, which I assumed he was, with his grey clothing.

I shrugged in response.

"It's normally for me, I'm not a transfer. But it's way cleaner than my own room." I laugh

at my awkward attempt at conversation and rolled my eyes.

"My name is Caleb, you?"

He held out his hand, and I hesitantly shook it, while smiling, and replied with a quick response.

"I'm Lizzie."

"Nice to meet you, Lizzie."

Hearing a snort in the distance, I assume that's Emma, trying to mingle with all the other candidates that could be in our group. It was already decided that we would be together, no matter what. We needed to stay together for the mission. Unlike Will, we had each other, and we couldn't risk the privilege. Since we needed two Erudite borns, Emma and I, for the group, we could check that off the list. We also needed the other gender.. We could ask Caleb, and so we could check that off as well. Emma seemed to have found another girl who she was laughing with, and I was positive it wasn't a Erudite born. We had found our group.

Emma runs over, with the Abnegation girl with grey smocks. We make a little conversation, and after a weird chat, we decided Emma would take room 12, I win room 13, Emily, the Abnegation girl with 11, and Caleb with 10. After that, Emma convinced us all to get to know each other even more in her room, and so we reluctantly went. Me? I was looking to see if I could rest.

"Hey, wanna hear a knock knock joke?" Caleb said out of the blue.

Hey, why not? It couldn't be THAT bad, right?

Boy, was I wrong.

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"To."

"To who?"

"No, to whom."

Are you kidding? That was a horrible joke. I put my face into my hands and sighed, then laughing with a little sarcastic tone. Hey, that's what happens when a horrible joke is told. Yup, I'm totally not pessimistic at all. Mhm, totally. Emily sighs, and shakes her head, and Emma laughs hysterically.

After a while of getting to know each other, we're called out to dinner at 8PM.

We are served to dinner and Emma, Emily, Caleb and I, sit together like friends who have known each other for the most of their lives. Spaghetti, Erudite's signature fizzy lemonade, and for dessert, brownies with vanilla ice cream. I hear an initiate grumble, "This isn't nearly as good as our cake." I assume this is a Dauntless initiate, as chocolate cake is one of Dauntless' specialties.

Suddenly, Jeanine Matthews walks calmly into the room of initiates and the room stands still,

silent even.

"Initiates."

Absolutely silent, no sound at all. It's as if there's a silencing spell cast upon all of us.

"I believe your instructor told you about your initiation procedure. Due to a last minute change, the order of your stages have been changed. You will first do several tests, some will be individual, and some will be with your second will be practical, with serums, as this knowledge is necessary in being an Erudite. The final stage will be research. As you have been told, there are ten transfers and ten Erudite-born. There are two from Abnegation-"

Jeanine seems as if the word 'Abnegation' was poison, and was licking at her tongue. The faint disgust. Yes, the selfless are the antagonists, yadda yadda yadda.

"-three from Candor, two from Dauntless, and three from Amity. This should divide evenly into groups of four, so there should be no group finding conflict."

Emily smirks, and laughs.

"Well, in that case, I'm taken for a group."

We all chuckle and soon after we pile up into my room this time, because why not? Emily had a rather horrible childhood, as I can tell from the tone that she talks in.

"Well, we should introduce ourselves first. More.. thoroughly." I suggest, and shrug.

"I'll go first." I say quickly, then yawn.

Thinking back on my life, I decided to tell them this:

"My full name is Elizabeth Willow, but you can, no, should call me Lizzie."

"One question," Emily pipes up, "You have a purple streak in your hair. How come? Only the Dauntless can dye their hair."

I am about to say that I'd rather not share that story, but Emma doesn't seem to be able to keep her mouth shut. "That," Emma says, "was a funny story. When we were seven, Lizzie found her way into the one of the science labs. She was fidgeting with a white concoction when purple powder spilled into it, and she got nervous, and tried to put it on a really high shelf. It toppled onto her hair, and now that streak in her hair grows purple naturally. At the time, I had found a way into the security system. I saw what Lizzie was doing, but when I questioned her, she denied everything. Well, until I showed her the footage. Then she confessed. I edited the footage so that it seemed that the concoction simply was imbalanced and fell over."

I feel glad at the time I didn't tell Emma everything. If not, she would have said it to everyone here, including Emily and Caleb, and wouldn't care what happened. What happened exactly was that my older mates had a parent that worked at the science labs, and I followed her, being the friend I was, for moral support. Emma, who was only a person I didn't see that frequently, thus I didn't trust her with everything, decided to be there at the same thing, catching me in the act of dying my hair. I had seen the chemicals at school and knew what they did to hair, and being the ignorant seven year old I was, I dyed a streak of hair purple with a paintbrush, washed it, and pretended to drop it all over my hair, add even more to the streak of purple. Emma, decided to intrude at that time, and 'caught' me in the act, and decided to help me change the footage that I already had deleted. Of the paintbrush scene, I already had that deleted, because of my amazing mates back then.

But even though I didn't mind, didn't mean I wasn't going to shoot back something nasty. Plus, Caleb is trying hard not to laugh, Emily is already grinning, and I bet I look like a tomato.

"Emma," I started, "What about the time you fell into the sewer?", using the most mock seriousness I could muster.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Emma said with salty sweetness.

"You were messing with the Dauntless controls and fell in the hole to capture sneakaway initiates?"

"Oh. That." Emma laughed awkwardly then ruffled her hair.

"So, I'll go next." Caleb suggested and we all laughed.

"I was from Abnegation, and I had a good childhood."

Hah, definitely better than mine, but that had nothing to do with my family.

"I have a sister named Beatrice, and we were always very close."

Beatrice… wasn't she in my English class?

Yes. Yes she was actually.

"My turn! I just tend to be on the edge of crazy most of the time." Emma interrupts, and

we all giggle in fits of laughter, and that was mostly how the entire night carried out.

Drunk with laughter the whole time, Emma, decided to wake the groggy me up from her slumber to chat.

Yay me.

In my dream, I've had eight glasses of lemonade.

"Lizzie," Someone calls me.

"I don't want more lemonade." I say.

"Lizzie," the same voice says again. Naomi must be trying to get me to help her build pillow forts again.

"Not now, Naomi," I groan.

"Elizabeth Willow, wake up!"

"Huh-wha-pillow forts!" Then I realise where I am. In the Erudite dorms. Ugh, not this again. I'm too drowsy to play at Emma's games.

"Pillow forts?" Emma looks at me with concern.

"Sorry."

"Right. As I was going to say, Will needs an update on stuff."

"It's not even been a day, Emma!"

"So? A lot can happen in a day. One day can be the difference between life and death, Lizzie!" She exclaims.

What got into her? "Calm down, Emma! We'll do it, alright? Just not today!"

"You know, Lizzie, I'm starting to think you have an aptitude for Dauntless as well as Erudite, what with your pride and ignorance," she hisses. She figured it out. She knows I'm Divergent. And if she tells… No. I'll just play it off as a joke.

"Yeah, sure go to your fantasy world, where everyone is either black or white, wrong or right, or good and bad."

That seemed to catch her off track, and I sighed internally. My secret was a one to be kept, and I wondered how many other people were like me.

Divergent.


End file.
